Natty Chatties

Molly Ringe, Owner of Molly’s Bottle Shop In Seattle, WA

About Molly

With over twenty-five years in fine dining, it was a cancer diagnosis at 30 that shifted Molly's career to natural wine and environmental advocacy. Fast-forward those 20+ post-cancer years and she is the proud owner of a tiny (200 square feet) natural wine shop in Seattle's Sunset Hill neighborhood, and recently, a second slightly larger shop (400 square feet) in West Seattle.

For Molly, natural wine is always fun, approachable, and collaborative! She believes in #communitynotcompetition and that empowering under-served communities (with a strong focus on women and non-binary) is as vital as is having fun. A firm believer in education-is-powerful, she leads wine education classes for restaurants, shops, and customers, as well as produces a YouTube channel about natural wine called Natural Winos. She hopes everyone finds and explores natural wine no matter where they may find themselves cuz natural wine and the natural wine community is RAD AF!

On any given night you'll likely find her outside her shop drinking and chatting with customers. And when she's not at the shop or traveling, she's on her paddle board or in the woods with her two pups, SweetP and PNut.

 The CHat

1) You own two bottle shops here in Seattle - what’s the #1 piece of advice you could give to someone who doesn’t have any clue what to look for or ask for when doing natural wine shopping?

Molly: Short answer: be open-minded, over-communicate and don’t be an asshole! Slightly longer answer: find a shop you trust and really get to know the staff by being curious and kind. Tell them when you don’t like something (even if they recommended it) – in the kindest way of course. Be super open-minded – natural wine is telling you a story and you have to be open to hearing it. Being super open and honest will help us point you toward the best wines for where you right now. That’s gonna change as your palate changes – that’s the FUN! Come to tastings, hang out, be nice – we really want you to be happy and enjoy the wine (like fer realz!!) Also do a little research – there are a LOT of wines out there pretending to be natural that are not. So seriously, find a shop that does the research – someone who travels and verifies!!!!!!! learn what is their definition of natural wine and (again) be open-minded!

Imagine that someone tosses you the keys to a vineyard (we can pretend for a moment that a vast plot of farmland requires keys to open it somehow). Point is, you're a winemaker now. Surprise! What's your label called, and what type of wine would you produce?

Molly: Hands down first thing I would do is give these pretend keys to someone who really wants to be a winemaker and then buy all the natural wine they make! There are so many incredible winemakers out there who deserve to be seen but aren't “Instagram” stars – I want to be the champion of those amazing people!! Honestly, I have zero interest in making wine. My passion is introducing all the amazing naturally-made wine out there to all the amazing people who wanna drink it AND care what it's effect is on the planet as well as our bodies. I also like to have fun and be part of this f'ing awesome community of natural wine makers cuz we rad AF.

What would be placed atop the cheese/charcuterie plank of your dreams, and what bottle of natural bubbles would you pop with it?

Molly: I've been vegetarian and mostly vegan for so long that I don't even know. SORRY!! For the record, I'm currently eating sourdough crackers that were made with nutritional yeast (thanks for the tip, Marina!) and dipping that in chipotle almond dip while drinking Patrice Colin 'Perles Grises' (Sparkling Pineau d’Aunis which is so freaking good I wanna bathe in it!) - the pairing is pretty awesome!

Maybe a better answer is brie (like the kind you can only get in Europe cuz it is too stinky to come to the US) and the same wine - brie is the cheese that keeps me from being 100% vegan.

I know this is a truly evil question for someone who stocks literally dozens of rad bottles of vino, but suppose you could only gulp from a single producer's stash for the rest of your life. Who would that be and why?

Molly: Yup – truly evil is right! Guess my TBH answer would be – I'd stop drinking wine and deep dive into mezcal cuz there is no way I can pick just one. And mezcal is bomb!

If Molly's Bottle Shop put together a three-pack specifically curated for a week at a coastal beach house in late August, what trio of delicious grape juice would we see there? For the record, I'm definitely not asking this because I'll be at a coastal beach house for a week in late August.

Molly: I would ask a lot of questions about what this person liked – part of what we love to do at Molly's is make people happy!! But if given completely free reign with zero $$ restrictions:

Franck Pascal 'Harmonie' 2011

Nicolas Joly 'Clos de la Coulée de Serrant'

Michel Guignier 'Melodie d'Automne'

For anyone on a budget(ish) who still wants to drink like a baller (do they still use that word these days?)

Pierre Gerbais 'Grains de Celles' 

Corisca Albarino

Michel Guignier 'Melodie d'Automne'

For the record, can I come? Also one whole week and you're only bringing 3 bottles??? I'll hook you up and we can party like rock stars (the kind that drink only natural wine and eat only brie!)

If you could only listen to one album, front-to-back, every time you drank wine forever, what'll it be?

Molly: Wow these deep questions about only one thing forever are so sci-fi! Bob Dylan 'Blood on the Tracks' is the only one I can think of cuz it changes every single time I listen to it which reminds me a lot of natural wine.

Plus I mean – come on! That's a great album no matter what you think about Bob Dylan.

From one lady in the natural wine galaxy to another, question #7 is a free-write to hype up any woman in natural wine - who is absolutely killin' it that we should all know about right now?

Molly: Some pretty incredible ladies coming out of Georgia right now – check out Baia Abuladze (Baia’s Wine), Tamuna Bidzinashvili (Kortavebis Marani), Keto Ninidze (Oda), Taso Akhvlediani (Artana Wines) & Roni Ginach (Roni Selects) – I'm sure there are more! Huge fan of Veronica at Mina Penelope as well!! hot damn – her wines are amazing!

I am also a big fan of Tess Bryant and her palate for natural wine. She also does her research and verifies which a super big deal to me!

– And definitely everyone should check out WINeFARE and Vinguard cuz this group is all about supporting women and queer folks in the natural wine scene. Pamela Busch is fierce and every single person in the natural wine galaxy needs to be supporting this mission!! I'm a huge fan of women who stand up for and support each other #communitynotcompetition

My final answer is Elisabetta Fagioli – this 80+ year dynamo is everything every heroine story wants! Hit me up for more details cuz she is definitely killing it and is my hero!